There were lots of takes on Basecamp’s (formerly 37Signals) latest announcement on internal company policies. Ben Thompson was interested in the work-life separation inside the large tech companies and how the lack thereof is coming home to roost at places like Google. Melissa Perri noted that the “no politics” policy could have an impact on ethical design (or the lack …
I find myself thinking about this morning about sources of learning, and how and where one challenges oneself to learn. Are you satisfied with your expertise in your domain, or are you constantly pushing to improve? As I wrote the other week, are you looking outside of your domain? I watched an experienced market researcher do a customer interview the …
This post, I admit, is aimed pretty squarely at senior executives, but hopefully others can follow along as well. As an executive, how would you decide between projects that could: a) improve retention; b) increase growth; c) protect against a lawsuit or regulatory fine; d) get ahead of debilitating tech debt; e) improve customer love and brand strength; f) build …
It took me forever, but I’ve finally started sending out a weekly email with a roundup of my own posts as well as interesting things that caught my eye during the week. I have no intention of charging for it, substack-style. I’ll probably experiment with the format, including sharing more cases tied to Product Case Camp. Here’s what was in …
I was asked to give a talk to a group of CTOs recently. Going into the interview, they asked four questions: What makes a good, modern PM? What are the ingredients for a strong product organization (prod-eng-design)? How can engineering help? How should a good, modern PM organization think about metrics in 2021? I tried to push past some of …
In my two books on testing new business ideas, I have a diagram called the “truth curve”. I often get credit for a variation that my friends Jeff Gothelf and Jeff Patton created, but their diagram makes a different, equally valuable point. I’m going to take the liberty of calling their graph the “build curve”. Let’s look at them both. …
Preface: I’m going to experiment with sharing some cases here. They are always better live, but I inserted a couple of moments for you to think asynchronously. This scenario is based on a blend of real situations, but has been adjusted for learning purposes. Setup One of your teams is really struggling with pace and progress against their goals, which …
“Female PMs tend to be promoted to operational roles, not strategic ones. If I want to be strategic, how can I avoid that?” A bright, experienced PM asked that question last week, and I wanted to offer a few suggestions. Before I do, I want to remind executives (myself included) of our responsibility to be aware of, and take steps …
A year ago, I had to step away from my CPO duties at Meetup for family reasons. The decision was the right one for my family, but it remains uncertain when I can return to a full-time role. I’ve been spending my available “work time” time teaching and writing. A little while back, Product Faculty asked me to design and …
Product leaders need to pay as much attention to the revenue model as the product and customer. Pricing and packaging have become too intertwined with both the product and customer behavior to be ignored and left to other functions in the business. And while all the elements of your business model (see Osterwalder’s canvas) are important for innovation, I’ve found …